Means for tentering fabrics



June 5, 1928. 1,672,719

. J. H. HAMILTON MEANS FOR TENTERING FABRICS filed March 25, 1927 sSheets-Sheet 1 I77 U6 711 011 BMWM,

31 @JM W June 5, 1928. 1,672,719

J. H. HAMILTON MEANS FOR TENTERING FABRICS Filed March 25, 1927 sSheets-Sheet 2 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII WWW,

771's dl'lo r7163] June 5, 1928. 1,672,719

J. H.. HAMILTON -Y MEANS FOR TENTERING FABRICS Filed March 23, 1927 sSheets-Sheet 3 I iffjjiiij Patented June 5, 1928.

UNITED STATES JOHN HERBERT HAMILTON, OF NORTH ANDOVER, MASSACHUSETTS.

MEAN S FOR TENTERING FABRICS.

Application filed March 23, 1927. Serial No. 177,575.

My invention relates to a machine for tentering fabrics; the machineemployed, belonging to that class having travelling chains provided withclamps that travel along guide-rails, for the purpose of stretchingsmoothing and drying continuous Webs of, say, cotton cloth.

The ultimate object of both features of my invention is to obtain, atsubstantially the same cost, a large increase in the production ofcentered fabrics, over that now attained with the best known resources.

I have found that when my method is carried out by my' machine, theproductive capacity of the latter is much geater than that of anytentering machine known to me; in

'fact, as between mine and the most efiicient of those in the rior art,operating at the same speed and En the same period of time, the quantityof cloth successfully tentered by my machine may be said to be abouttwice that tentered by the best of those now in use.

Further, be it noted that the modern tentering machine requires, as doesmine, the attention of two operatives. If as often happens, the businessof a mill absolutely requires that more cloth be tentered than can be,by one machine, in one day, then for extra or night work, these men mustbe paid larger and additional wages.

7 If the quantity to be tentered is beyond the capacity of one machine,then a second inachine must be purchased, set up and operated as by twooperatlves. This means a doubling of cost for machinery, for operatingexpenses, and of floor space for tentering.

Now by reason of my method and of my apparatus, I overcome theseobjections and obtain, ,7

1) Greatly increased production;

2 A saving in cost for machinery;

- 3; Saving in number of operatives employed;

4) Saving in cost of over-time work;

is) Saving in floor space in mill;

Allof which savings are of great value to the textile manufacturers,both the large, and especially the smaller.

My'method resides in any tentering process whereby two or more webs offabric, with an intervening air space between the adjacent webs, may besimultaneousl and uniformly successively fed, conveye stretched anddelivered; and my machine,

and to close, for the reception, the holding,

and the release of the selvage edges of said plurality of webs of fabricmoving in parallel separate planes.

The accomfanying drawings illustrate the principles 0 my inventions, andthe best mode now known to me of embodying them in operative structures.

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view, in eleva- 7 tion, of the apparatus, andmachinery making use of my new method of tentering; the chains and thegripping means being omitted to avoid confusion.

Fig. 2 is a plan of the tentering machine; its chains and gripping meansbeing indicated by dash and dot lines.

Fig.3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view on line 33, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a right side elevation of Fig. 3, partially in section.

Fig. 5 is a partial plan View of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is an end elevation of entering end of said tentering machineshown in Fig. 2; some of its parts being omitted forthe sake ofclearness.

That one may gather a general idea of the features of my invention,reference may be made to Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 1 showing from beginning toend, my means using my method of tentering a plurality of webs offabric, uniformly and simultaneously.

Two trucks A, B, each having a dam piece of fabric 0, D that has beenextende from washers, are placed under two overhead racks, E, F made upof a series of tension bars, G, H. One web C is led through rack E, andthe other D, through rack F, each web, respectively, being directed intothe entering end of the machine by an well known automatic,compressed-air clot guiders I, J; and after passing under theirrespective tension rolls K, L both webs C, D are seasonablysimultaneously, but separately, seized at their respective selvages, asWlll be described hereinafter, by a plurality of superimposed clamps 2,2, F1 s. 2 and 6, mounted on the links 3 of the chains 4, 4 and areconveyed and stretched in the usualmanner, the two webs C, D, movingthrough the machine in separate arallel horizontal planes with an airspace. etween them. Upon the arrival of the webs at the Peach supportingan endless chain 4, 4',

' travelling in stretching guide-ways Q, and

driven around idle sprockets, R R by sprocket wheels R, B, Fig. 2 at thedelivery end of the machine, fixed to shafts S receiving their powerfrom bevel gears operated by a drivin shaft T receiving its power from asuita le source.

The guide-rails are of the usual construction, and, by use of handwheels V, U and cooperating mechanisms, may be moved to give any desiredwidth to the tentering ma chine.

In order that I may simultaneously and uniformly tenter two or more websof fabric, I provide integral with, and projecting laterally from, eachlink 3, Figs. 3, 4, and 5, of each endless chain, as 4, Fig. 2, astandard 5 for the reception of a plurality of clamps 2, 2 designed tobe seasonably opened and closed by cams and gravity, to receive and togrip the selvage of a plurality of webs C, D of fabric.

The standard 5 is E-shaped in vertical section, the middle and lowerarms 6, 7 forming bases for clamp-plates 6', 7' of the clamps 2, 2;while the upper and the middle arms 8, 7 support pins 9, 9 upon whichswing gravity operated jaws 10, 10 that, when free, fall upon the fixedclamp-plates, 6', 7' and grip the selvages that may he upon theclamp-plates.

Upon the-front of each movable jaw as 10, is a boss 11 to be engaged ina manner later to be explained, for raising each jaw while in the rearmid portion of the movable clamp-plate, is a slot 12,.Fig. 5, in whichone leg 13 of an L-shaped controller opera: tively connected to the jawand pivoted at 14: in the standard, is free to be moved by the jaw toraise the jaw and permit the selvage of the fabric to be positionedthere under, see Fig. 6, upon entering the machine, or by gravity, whenthe boss on the jaw is not engaged by a cam surface.

To sustain the standard 5 and clamps 2, 2, Fig. 3, in a fixed plane inrelation to the machine frame, the guide-way Q in the to surface of eachguide-rail, to receive eacli link'-3"df the chain, is, in crosssection,that of the link. At the back of the link, projecting rearwardly, is anintegral guide member 15, Figs. 3, 5, and 6, in sliding engagement witha loclc rail 16 that resists any tendency on the part of the conveyorlink, to turn, due to the ull of the stretching fabrics away from theclamps. To resists this tendency still further, a supporting rail 17 isfixed to the inside of the guide-.

rails of the machine.

seasonably to open, simultaneously and momentarialy, the normally closedclamps 2, 2 on each link of the chain, to receive the selvage of thefabric, at the feed end of the machine, see Fig. 6, and release it atthe delivery end, there are fixed to the machine frame four groups 18,18, 19, 19, Figs. 1, 2 and 6 of cam surfaces, each group, as 18, Figs. 1and 6, comprising a plurality of semi-circular cam surfaces 20, 20, eachgroup, respectively, having a centre in c0mmon with that of its sprocketwheel, and adapted to engage the bosses 11, 11' on the superimposed jaws10, 10 of the clamps 2, 2'.

That the webs of fabric may move from the cloth guides I, J, Fig. 1,into the positions required, Figs. 1 and 6, to be seized by the clamps,a plurality of delivery plates 22, 22, Fig. 6, is provided which deliverthe advancing selvages 23, 23 into the open spaces between theclamp-plate and jaw of each clamp, brought about by said opening cams.

I will now describe the operation of the features of my invention.

By means of the hand wheels U, V, Fig. 2, shafts and bevel gears shown,the longitudinal guide-rails F, P and endless conveyor chains 4, 4 aremoved into the position appearing in Fig. 2, the dot and dash linesindicating the endless chain links 3, eachwith its two superimposedclamps 2, 2, Fig. 3, all properly arranged to tenter two webs of fabricC, D, simultaneously and uniformly, said webs being contained, as

sitilready stated, in theiwo trucks A, B, in

Power from a suitable source being aphed to the machine through thelarge gear l V, Fig. 2, shaft T, bevel gears, shafts S and drivingsprockets R, R, indicated in Fi 1, the two endless chains 4, 4', movealong t eir respective guide-ways Q, ln the guide-rails P, P and aboutthe driving and the idle sprocket wheelsR, R R R, as indicated by thearrows in Fig. 2.

The machine being in motion, the web of fabric 0, Fig. 1, from truck Ahaving been drawn over the bars G of the rack E, and

through the cloth guides I, as has, likewise,

the web D from truck B, over its bars H and through its cloth guides J,a narrow threadmg tape is next attached to the free end of each web,drawn under their respective feed rolls K, L, over the delivery plates22, Fig. 2, through the machine, and over tension bars, to the mechanismM for forming the tentered pieces of fabric C, D, for example, intorolls As this mechanism M begins winding the two separate tapes, thefree ends of the webs of fabric C, D, approach and move over thedelivery plates 22; their respective selvages 23, 23 being guided byhand into their respective open spaces between the clampplate 6', 7 andjaws 10, 10, Figs. 3 and 6, of the clamp 2, 2, and held open by theengagement of the bosses 11, 11' of the jaws with the cam plates 20, 20from which said bosses are about to become disengaged.

At the moment of disengagement, the jaws 10, 10' and legs 13, 13' of thecontrollers, fall, but while the latter fall upon the selvages 23, 23,they also hold the jaws o rft of gripping engagement with the selwages.As the chains 4, 4, clamps 2, 2',

and fabrics C, D, move forward, the chains and clamps move apart, and incontrollers finally slip off the edges of the selvage, drop down intothe cavities in the bases, and free the jaws, which at once, with theclampplates, bite and securely hold the selvages.

In this way, each portion of the selvage of each of the two webs ofcloth, simultaneously enters the machine, is simultaneously seized, andthe webs are simultaneously and uniformly stretched in width, as theypro- .ceed to the central portion of the machine,

where the advancing parts of the endless chains with the grippedselvages of the webs, begin and continue to move in parallelism, untiltheir clamps are released by the bosses of the gates engaging therelease cams, 19, 19'. From the machine, these two separate webs C, D,pass over suitable bars, and are wound up into rolls C, D, upon their respective winding rollers ready for the next operation, if any, to whichthey are to be subjected. I 1 7 Having described the method, and themeans, invented by me, whereby, in the tentering art, there may beobtained (1) Greatly increased production; 0 (2) A saving in cost formachinery;

- (3) Saving in number of operatives employed;

4) Saving in cost of over-time work; 5) Saving in floor space in mill;

And desiring to protect said means in the parallelism while passingthrough the machine. I

2. In a tenter ng machine, a pair of continuously-travelling chainconveyors run ning in the same horizontal plane and mecha nism fordriving the same, each link of said chains being provided with twoindependent cloth-gripping units mounted one above the other, each ofsaid units embodying its own gripping-plate and downwardly-movinggripping-devices, and stretching-guides for the chains locat (1 underthe chains, whereby the one set 0 chains and stretchingguides serve touniformly tenter two webs of cloth.

3. In a tentering machine, driving mechanism, a pair of travellingchains moved by said mechanism and both lying in the same horizontalplane, said mechanism embodying chain-carrying wheels whose axes arevertical, cloth-gripping-units mounted on top of the links of saidchains, each unit comprising a plurality of superimposed gripping-jaws,

and companion c1amp-plates,-all the clamp.-

plates having their clamping-faces facing upwardly, stretching-guidesfor holding said gripping-units in their respective operating planes,and means for seasonably opening and closing each of said jaws for thepurpose of simultaneously and seasonably receiving, seizing andreleasing a plurality of 'moving webs ,of fabric separate from eachother but in parallelism while passing through the machine. f

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature. 1

JOHN HERBERT HAMILTON.

